Texas Brine employees move to Bayou Corne

Louisiana has sued Texas Brine for the environmental damage and expenses incurred because of a massive sinkhole that scientists say was caused by the collapse of a salt dome cavern operated by the company.
AP
Nearly a third of residents in the vicinity of the sinkhole that emerged last Aug. 3 in Assumption Parish swamplands have reached agreements to sell their homes and will leave the area. AP file Nearly a third of residents in the vicinity of the sinkhole that emerged last Aug. 3 in Assumption Parish swamplands have reached agreements to sell their homes and will leave the area. Associated Press file
Shallow wells will be drilled in the vicinity of the sinkhole that emerged Aug. 3 in Assumption Parish swamplands in Bayou Corne. The wells will be used to monitor the amount of natural gas being carried by an underground aquifer atop the Napoleonville Dome near Bayou Corne.(Photo11: File, Associated Press)

The 24-acre Bayou Corne sinkhole in Assumption Parish gulped down six cypress trees last week.

That did not deter Texas Brine workers from moving into abandoned homes their company purchased as part of a settlement with residents who fled the area under a mandatory evacuation order that remains in place.

Texas Brine spokesman Sonny Cranch said the company now owns 66 homes in the Bayou Corne community, which was evacuated more than a year ago. Texas Brine, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum, allowed one of its workers and his wife to move into one Bayou Corne home. Two other professionals employed by Texas Brine moved into a second house in the evacuation area.

Cranch said other Texas Brine employees were already renting Bayou Corne homes from residents who evacuated but still owned their homes there. Texas Brine workers monitor the Bayou Corne area in a variety of ways, such as surveying it to see whether the land is sinking and placing seismic sensors in the area to record mini-quakes caused by land around the sinkhole shifting.

"We don't want to be in the real estate business. This is just a convenience for our employees on the Bayou Corne project who would rather be closer to work than rent an apartment in Donaldsonville or farther away," Cranch said. "We don't believe there is a safety issue for people living in Bayou Corne."

The state disagrees about the potential risk, so it may be years before the evacuation order is lifted. Texas Brine owns the salt dome whose cavern caved in, creating the sinkhole in August 2012. Some scientists worry that the sinkhole allows methane gas to emerge in potentially hazardous quantites.

Bayou Corne resident Nick Romero, a retired engineer, still lives in his house, although his wife did leave the community due to health concerns for a time. Romero remembers that Texas Brine subcontracted The Shaw Group to do some sinkhole research and work.

"All of the Shaw workers wore these meters constantly that registered methane or toxic gases so I asked Bayou Corne why they didn't buy those meters for the residents who couldn't evacuate," Romero said. "They bought each of us some meters and showed us how to use them. You keep an eye on the numbers to see if too much methane is collecting."

He and his wife keep a packed suitcase by their bed because if one alarm goes off, they were instructed to run to their car and get away from Bayou Corne as fast as possible.

More than half of Bayou Corne's residents still own their homes and have not negotiated a sale as part of a settlement. Cranch said he is not sure what Texas Brine will do with the houses it bought, but Texas Brine officials area pondering tearing them down and converting the land into green space.